Nasdaq MSFT MicroSoft

Ratings agency Moody's on Tuesday upgraded Apple Inc's long-term credit rating to 'AAA' with a stable outlook, citing the iPhone maker's "exceptional liquidity" and robust earnings.

Wall Street's main indexes jumped more than 1.5% on Tuesday, with strength in travel and economically sensitive shares as well as in Nike and Micron Technology following their earnings, as stocks rebounded from a coronavirus-fueled rout the session before.

Wall Street's main indexes rose more than 1% on Tuesday, boosted by Nike and Micron following strong earnings, while beaten-down big technology stocks bounced back from an Omicron-driven rout in the previous session.

The European Commission on Tuesday granted Microsoft unconditional antitrust approval for its $16 billion bid for artificial intelligence and speech technology company Nuance Communications.

Accelerated digital transformation across the globe is proving to be beneficial for tech giant Microsoft (MSFT), boosting the demand for its Azure cloud platform. However, increased cloud transformations mean greater security risks, and that is what Microsoft is focusing on currently.

Expert Gives Positive Opinion

Recently, Mizuho analyst Gregg Moskowitz interviewed top executives from Microsoft’s management and was impressed by the company’s growing strength in identity and access management (IAM). “In our view, MSFT's increasing prioritization of security over the last few years is materializing in the form of stronger protection for customers, tighter product integration, and better monetization, and certainly this includes the identity space,” noted Moskowitz.

The analyst reminded us that Microsoft had disclosed the revenues it realized from its portfolio of security products for the first time. Microsoft notably crossed $10 billion in revenues over the past year. The company also revealed that it has approximately 650,000 security customers presently.

Moskowitz reiterated a Buy rating on MSFT stock, with a price target of $360.

A Tense Threat Environment Calls for Action

Microsoft is grappling with a very challenging threat environment, given the 150% rise in ransomware attack incidents over the last year, and about seven times more phishing campaigns now since the onset of the pandemic.

Also, the company is currently reeling from more than 550 cyberattacks per second targeting digital identities. As if that’s not enough, the new Log4J vulnerability is expected to impact millions of devices soon, making it all the more necessary to up the ante in security.

These are the forces that are prompting Microsoft to take its provision of security up a notch.

Growing Clout in Security Bodes Well

Management commentary in the MSFT earnings call for the last reported quarter seemed upbeat about the company’s growing strength in the area of security. “We analyze over 24 trillion signals across email, endpoints, and identities each day and translate this intelligence into innovative features to protect our customers. We have prevented more than 70 billion attacks over the past year alone,” emphasized management.

Furthermore, high demand for the company’s premium Microsoft 365 E5 offerings and advanced security solutions is expected to lead to low double-digit growth in Windows commercial products and cloud services in the second quarter of fiscal 2022.

Significantly, the Microsoft 365 E5 brought in meaningful revenues, fueled by strong demand for its advanced security, compliance, voice, and analytics capabilities.

The company also pledged to invest $20 billion towards its security solutions over the next five years, in order to combat the growing sophistication of cyber-vulnerabilities better.

Wall Street Weighs In

The consensus rating for Microsoft is a Strong Buy, based on 23 Buys and 1 Hold. The MSFT stock forecast says $368.33, indicating a 15.14% upside to the present share prices.

Disclosure: At the time of publication, Chandrima Sanyal did not have a position in any of the securities mentioned in this article.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article represents the views and opinion of the writer only, and not the views or opinion of TipRanks or its affiliates  Read full disclaimer >

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